Robot system

ABSTRACT

A robot system is disclosed which includes at least two robots, each having a related processing unit. The processing units are connected to each other via a network bus for data transmission, and distributed sensors are provided for gathering first and/or second measurement data within a local extension of the robot system. First measurement data gathered by at least one first sensor are transmissible to at least one processing unit related thereto. Second measurement data gathered by at least one second sensor are feedable into the network bus and provided to the at least two processing units connected thereto. The processing units can analyze the second measurement data as a variable dynamic share of workload for feeding result-data of the analysis into the network bus.

RELATED APPLICATION

This application claims priority as a continuation application under 35U.S.C. §120 to PCT/EP2009/002706 filed as an International Applicationon Apr. 11, 2009 designating the U.S., the entire content of which ishereby incorporated by reference in its entirety.

FIELD

The present disclosure relates to a robot system having at least tworobots and a related processing unit each, where the processing unitscan be connected to each other via a network bus for data transmissionand a distributed sensor can be used for gathering first and/or secondmeasurement data within the local extension of the robot system, whereasfirst measurement data gathered by at least one first sensor means aretransmissible to at least one processing unit related thereto.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

It is known that robots or manipulators are used in industrialapplications such as the assembly of workpieces to a final product, thepackaging of small objects or the grading of small objects. A robot caninclude several degrees of freedom in movement, for example three orsix, but also manipulators with only two degrees of freedom or withseven and more degrees of freedom in movement. Each robot can becontrolled, for example, by a dedicated robot controller.

A robot with three degrees of freedom in movement, for example, may havethe ability to move an interface platform on the tip of the robot arm inthree geometrical dimensions within its working range. For someapplications a gripper tool is mounted on the interface platform. Thistype of robot can be suitable for so called pick and place applicationswhereas the robot is arranged, for example, over a conveyor belttransporting a plurality of individual small objects to be picked fromthe conveyor belt and to be packaged afterwards. Those robots may have aworking range of, for example, +/−50 cm in each dimension whereasseveral and parallel working robots can be arranged along the conveyorbelt. A similar application is, for example, disclosed in U.S. Pat. No.6,328,523.

Of course, robots with six or seven degrees of freedom in movement arealso suitable for such applications. But those robots are bigger andhave a working range of for example 3 m around their rotary base. Aknown application for those robots is for example the assembly of carbodies in the automotive industry.

These robot applications can include for their control, but also due tosafety aspects, a sensor based feedback from their working environment,where a plurality of different suitable sensor types is known. Thefeedback signal could be for example based on a light barrier around therobot which covers some security aspects to prevent incidents withpersonnel. But also cameras are known sensors for generating a feedbacksignal, especially for pick and place applications. In this case thestationary cameras observe the small objects moving along on theconveyor belt. The pictures from the camera can be analyzed permanentlyconcerning the number, type and position of the small objects on themoving conveyor belt. Based on this analysis, the robots pick selectedobjects from the conveyor belt and place them for example in a packageto which they belong. A robot system having an image processing functionis disclosed for example in U.S. Pat. No. 7,177,459.

Such an analysis can be performed by a dedicated processing unitconnected to the sensors, which analyzes all measurement signals. Theeffort of analyzing those data is strongly dependent on the kind anddensity of the objects on the conveyor, so the analyzing effort for onesensor may be at one time significantly higher than for another sensorand some time later significantly lower. Some data may have to beanalyzed in real-time, such as security relevant data within not morethan a few ms. Other data are less time critical and can involve forexample an analysis only within a few 100 ms or some seconds.

Known processing units might become a bottleneck for the whole processin the case where an unexpected high amount of data has to be analyzedat the same time, so that the analysis of some data might be delayed andcan not be considered in the robot control. In an exemplary worst case,the production process has to be temporarily stopped.

SUMMARY

A robot system is disclosed comprising: at least two robots each havinga related processing unit, the processing units being connected to eachother via a network bus for data transmission; and distributed sensormeans for gathering first and/or second measurement data within a localextension of the robot system, the first measurement data gathered by atleast one first sensor means being transmissible to at least one of theprocessing units related thereto, and second measurement data gatheredby at least one second sensor means being feedable into the network busand provided to the at least two processing units connected thereto foranalyzing the second measurement data as a variable dynamic share ofprocessing unit workload, the at least two processing units beingconfigured to feed analysis result-data into the network bus.

A method for analysis of the measurement data of distributed sensors isalso disclosed in a robot system having at least two robots, each with arelated processing unit, the method comprising: gathering secondmeasurement data by at least one second sensor; feeding the secondmeasurement data into a network bus for data transmission; providing thesecond measurement data to at least two processing units of the at leasttwo robots connected to the network bus for data transmission; analyzingthe second measurement data by the at least two processing units as avariable dynamic share of workload among the processing units; andfeeding analysis result-data of the processing units into the networkbus.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The invention will be further explained by way of exemplary embodimentsand with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 shows an exemplary control structure for a known robot system;and

FIG. 2 shows an exemplary robot system and control structure asdisclosed herein.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

A robot system is disclosed wherein second measurement data gathered byat least one second sensor means are feedable into a network bus andprovided to at least two processing units connected thereto for analysisof the second measurement data as a variable dynamic share of workloadamong the processing units, the at least two processing units beingconfigured to feed result-data of the analysis into the network bus.

In this case, an entire effort for analysing the measurement data isintegrated into the robot controllers respective processing units whichcan be similar for example to a personal computer (PC) or workstation.

The robot controllers can have integrated therein additional softwarefor sensor data analysis (also called Integrated Vision) and controllogic to distribute the analysis results to the other controllers in thenetwork. In known robot systems, the controllers were considered to havetoo limited processing power to carry out additional tasks besidescontrolling robot movement.

Hence a control unit or control PC which is dedicated only for dataprocessing and analyzing can in principal be totally avoidable wherebythe effort for hardware and the number of specified components can beadvantageously reduced.

The static sensor data distribution of the first measurement data refersto fixing the relation between sensors and processing units duringcommissioning the robot system. Static in this case, refers to somespecial first measurement data of one or more selected sensors areassigned to a certain processing unit. This distribution is not changedat runtime. The static assignment of processing units to sensors has toconsider the overall robot system. For example, first measurement datashould only be analysed by processing units, which can make use of theanalysis results, so that there is limited need for transferring theseresults to other processing units. This can be important to keep thenetwork traffic in the system on an acceptable level. Safety relevantmeasurement data are very often first measurement data which have to beanalyzed in real-time without any avoidable delay, whereas a delay offor example 10ms can be seen as real-time.

It is however in some cases desirable to connect a single sensor to asmany processing units as possible (for example in a given robot line),so that the static sensor data distribution of the first measurementdata can also be performed over the network bus for data transmission.

The second measurement data can be in any case dynamically distributedover a sensor network respectively to the network bus for datatransmission. All processing units which are connected to the networkbus for data transmission are capable to receive the second measurementdata from the network bus and are also capable to analyze those data.The measurement data of cameras for example are very often secondmeasurement data, which are not safety relevant and whereas a time delayof a few 100 ms and in some cases also up to some seconds is acceptable.

Hence it is possible in an advantageous way to ensure the analysis ofpossibly time-critical first measurement data on one side, and on theother side to dynamically use calculation capabilities of the processingunits connected to the network bus for data transmission. The datatraffic on the network bus can be kept as low or nearly as low aspossible by the splitting of measurement data into first and secondmeasurement data.

In an exemplary variant, the robot system can include at least oneconveyor belt for the transportation of small objects and the at leasttwo robots can be used for pick and place applications of small objects.

In such a robot system, exemplary advantages are notably relevant, sincethe workload for the processing units to analyze the measurement datamay extremely vary dependent on the actual conditions of the productionprocess.

If for example the robot system includes five robots for pick and placeapplications which are arranged along a moving conveyor belt and a boxwith small objects is dumped on it, an effort for analysing measurementdata for example from cameras will move together with the cluster ofsmall objects along the conveyor belt.

So at the beginning of this process the effort for analysing themeasurement data of the first camera along the conveyor belt will be thehighest since the initial cluster of small objects is within the viewingangle of the first camera. At the same time only an empty conveyor beltmight be within the viewing angle of the last camera, so that the effortfor analyzing those measurement data will be rather low. If the clusterhas moved to the end of the conveyor belt into the working range of thelast robot the cluster might be significantly reduced since the otherfour robots have already picked most of the small objects from theconveyor belt. Nevertheless the relative highest effort for analyzingmeasurement data will be involved at this moment for the last cameraobserving the rear of the conveyor belt.

In case of an exemplary continuous flow of small objects the firstcamera will involve the highest effort for analyzing their measurementdata whereas the last camera will always involve the lowest effort.

A camera, a light sensor or a weight sensor are examples for sensors,which are suitable to gather measurement data within such a robotsystem.

In an exemplary embodiment of the robot system, the processing unitrelated to the robot is a robot controller. It includes processing means(e.g., specially programmed computer or software module) with theability of processing and analysing measurement data as alreadymentioned.

According to another exemplary variant, at least one further processingunit, which is not related to a robot, is connected to the network busfor data transmission and is configured to analyze the secondmeasurement data in the manner of a variable dynamic share of workloadamong the processing units whereas those processing units are configuredto feed result-data of the analysis into the network bus.

If the robot related processing units do not provide the specifiedamount of calculation capability, this further processing unit canprovide additional capability, whereas this further processing unit isfully involved into the dynamic distribution of the workload among theprocessing units. Therefore all advantages as described before are fullyapplicable also for this exemplary embodiment.

According to a further exemplary embodiment, the first measurement dataof the at least one first sensor means are transmissible via a separatedata line and/or the sensor network respectively the network bus fordata transmission to a processing unit related thereto. The directconnection via a separate data line on the one side enables a fasttransmission of first measurement data without generating data trafficon the network. The connection over the network on the other sideenables an increased flexibility.

Dependent on the frame conditions, it is therefore possible to optimizethe data transfer structure of the robot system in an advantageous way.

According to an exemplary variant, at least the second measurement dataare provided with a timestamp. Since there is no exactly known delay forsecond measurement data in-between gaining those data and analyzingthose data—for example 10 ms . . . 1000 ms—it is rather difficult tomerge the results of the analysis of the second measurement datatogether as basis for the control of the robots. A timestamp will enablesuch synchronization of measurement data respectively with the resultsof their analysis. This strategy involves a synchronization of theclocks of the involved processing units and external sensors, but doesnot need to involve a communication between the processing units fordistributing the sensor data.

In a further exemplary variant the variable dynamic share of workloadfor the analysis of second measurement data among the processing unitsis adjustable according to the actual un-used workload capacities of theprocessing units.

To achieve a balanced load or workload among the processing units, itcan be desirable to distribute sensor data samples mainly tounderutilized processing units. The utilization of the processing unitsmight be different because of the setup of the robot line. For example,the last robot controller in a robot line might not have to handle manyrobot movements, because most items would already be picked by formerrobots. Additionally, different robot controller types with differentresponsibilities might be involved in a single robot line leading todifferent controller utilizations.

According to a further exemplary variant the analysis of secondmeasurement data includes a plurality of solitary and exactly definedworking packages. Such a working package could be for example theanalysis of a picture frame of a camera.

For such image data it may not be desirable to split single frames anddistribute these sub frames to different processing units for analysisbecause the effort for merging the results and the possibility forhaving a single item spread of multiple sub frames do not compensate thebenefit from faster analysis in current state of the art setups. Theeffort for one working package shall not exceed a certain workload toensure the prompt analyzes through the relevant processing unit.

In another exemplary variant, the workload for the analysis of secondmeasurement data among the processing units is adjustable according to around-robin method.

Sensor data can be sent to the processing units in a round-robinfashion, meaning that each processing unit receives a data sample afteranother. This strategy includes each processing unit triggering thesubsequent processing unit receiving the next data sample. This triggercan be sent out after downloading a data sample from the sensor, butbefore processing it. This strategy involves the processing unitscommunicating with each other as the distribution logic cannot beincluded into the existing exemplary standard sensors.

According to another exemplary embodiment, the processing units areconfigured to request new second measurement data from the second sensormeans if they have un-used workload capacities.

Therefore each processing unit first analyses its current load and thendecides according to some configurable threshold, for example 80 percentCPU utilization, whether to retrieve the next data sample from anexternal sensor, or whether to trigger a subsequent processing unit totake over.

According to an exemplary embodiment, the result-data of the analysis ofthe second measurement data fed into the network bus are storable in thefurther processing unit and are transmittable from there to dedicatedrobot controllers via the network bus.

Since such further processing units might provide a rather highcalculation capacity it is useful to assign such a processing unit tomerge the result data together and to initiate or even influence therespective movement picking process of the different robots. Thisexemplary variant can be preferred in a case where for example, theeffort for merging together result data is rather high, for example fora robot system with a plurality of robots.

Each processing unit can transmit first sensor data analysis resultsback to such a further processing unit, such as a control PC workstationwhich is supervising the whole process. In turn the control PCworkstation can distribute the results to the robot controller, whichactually use these results to adjust robot movement. In this variant,the sensor data processing units do not need to be aware of each other,because, for example, only the control PC workstation may need to have alist of connected robot controllers. However, this variant introduces anetwork delay for the additional round-trip to the control PCworkstation and then the robot controllers.

According to another exemplary variant, the result-data of the analysisof the second measurement data fed into the network bus are directlytransmittable to dedicated robot controllers via the network bus. Thisis an exemplary solution in the case that the effort for mergingtogether the result data is rather low, for example if the robot systemincludes only two or three robots.

Each processing unit can send sensor data analysis results directly tothe robot controller responsible for processing for example a scanneditem. In this variant, no redirection via a further respectiveprocessing unit to a control PC workstation is needed, whereby thenetwork latency can be reduced in an advantageous way.

In a further exemplary variant, at least one distributed sensor meansincludes processing means for analyzing the measurement data. This couldbe an integrated pre-analysis of a picture for example for extractingsome features such as number or approximate position of an small objecton the conveyor belt. The data traffic on the network bus for datatransmission will be reduced by this. Furthermore such sensor relatedpre-processing with dedicated hardware can be rather fast.

In a further exemplary embodiment, the robot system comprises a systemlogical controller, which is for example, configured to take over allcommunication and/or coordination of the robot system with an overlaidsystem or neighboured production line within a production plant.

According to another exemplary variant, at least two robots are relatedto a common robot controller. Such multi robot controllers are known andthis type of processing unit can be integrated into a robot systemaccording to an exemplary embodiment. It is possible to include such arobot controller into the group of processing units which process secondmeasurement values in a dynamic share of workload or not.

A method is also disclosed for analysis of the measurement data ofdistributed sensor means in a robot system according to an exemplarymethod comprising:

-   -   gathering second measurement data by at least one second sensor        means    -   feeding those measurement data into the network bus for data        transmission    -   providing those measurement data to at least two processing        units connected to the network bus for data transmission    -   analyzing of the second measurement data by the at least two        processing units in the manner of a variable dynamic share of        workload in-between themselves    -   feeding the result-data of the analysis from the processing        units into the network bus

Exemplary advantages of this method correspond to the advantages of thesystem as mentioned before. This method can be continuously repeatedwithin a time interval. So it becomes possible to continuously supervisea longer production process for example.

FIG. 1 shows an example for a control structure 10 for a known robotsystem. Three robot controllers 12 are connected to a common network bus16, whereas additional robot controllers 12 are connectable to thenetwork bus 16. Each robot controller 12 controls a related robot byproviding all control signals for the desired movement of the robot. Arobot program might be stored on the robot controller 12 providing atleast the control of the basic movements of the robot, whereas thismovement is adaptively influenceable by commands transmitted over thenetwork bus 16. The robots may be any kind of manipulators. Severaldistributed sensors 14—in this case cameras—are arranged within theworking environment of the robots 12. The measurement data of thecameras 12 are transmittable over the data connection lines 22 directlyto a control computer (e.g., PC) workstation 22, which is also connectedto the network bus 16 and which might be a normal industrial computer(e.g., PC).

An exemplary control PC workstation 22 includes analyzing softwarestored thereon and is responsible for analyzing all incoming measurementdata. A differentiation in-between time-critical and less time-criticalmeasurement data is not foreseen. The result of the measurement dataanalysis is provided on the network bus 16 so that all robot controllers12 connected therewith have access to their dedicated instructions basedon the analyzed data. In case of a pick and place system thisinformation could include which object on the conveyor belt has to bepicked and where the position of the object is.

A system logical controller 18 can be configured to exchange data fromthis robot system to another robot system or to an overlaid controlsystem. Dependent on the actual workload of each robot, the robotcontrollers 12 might be rather under-loaded whereas the control PCworkstation might be over-loaded under certain circumstances.

FIG. 2 shows an example for a robot system 30 with a control structureas disclosed herein. Four robots 32, 34, 36, 38 for pick and placeapplications are arranged over a conveyor belt 70, where a plurality ofsmall objects 72 can be placed. The conveyor belt 70 is moving in thedirection as indicated with an arrow. The distribution of the smallobjects 72 may vary in a broad range whereas it is possible that fromtime to time clusters of small objects 72 are placed on the right sideof the conveyor belt 70. The robots 32, 34, 36, 38 can be robots withthree degrees of freedom in movement, whereas a gripper tool is attachedto the tip of the belonging robot arm. The gripper tool can grip thesmall objects 72 so that they are pickable by the robots and can bedropped on another place, for example a packaging on a neighbouredconveyor belt in the working range of the robots 32, 34, 36, 38.

The first robot 32 and the second robot 34 are each controlled by arelated robot controller 40, 42. A robot controller provides the controlsignals to the robot, which can be seen as manipulator. Each degree offreedom in movement of a manipulator can involve a dedicated motordrive, such as electric. Therefore the robot controller might generatethe controlled energy supply for the relevant electro motors byamplifiers, so that the robot tip moves along a desired path. Theprincipal movement of a robot 32, 34, 36, 38 can be determined by amovement program, which might be stored in the memory of the relevantrobot controller 40, 42, 44. For example, those movements areinfluenceable by external commands, for example the coordinates and/orthe orientation of an object 72 to be gripped by the robot. The robotcontrollers 40, 42 can be configured to receive such commands over thenetwork bus 60, where they are connected to with the data connections62.

A third robot controller 44 can also be connected to the network bus fordata transmission 60, and this controller 44 can control the movement ofthe two robots 36 and 38. Two further processing units respectivelycontrol computers (e.g., PCs) 64, 66 and are also connected to thenetwork bus 60, whereas control PCs 64, 66 are not related to any robot.An exemplary purpose of the computers 64, 66 is to provide calculationcapability to the robot system 30 that enables the processing ofmeasured data gathered by the distributed sensors 46, 48, 50, 52, 54.

The sensors 46, 48, 50, 52 can be cameras, which continuously observethe small objects 72 on the moving conveyor belt 70. Therefore eachcamera produces in a certain time interval—for example each 5 ms or each1000 ms—an image. Such a rather long time of 1000 ms might be sufficientas an information interval for the basic control of the robot system insome cases but it may not be suitable for desired security aspects.Based on the analysis of those sensors each robot receives advice overthe network bus 60 (e.g., which small object 72 has to be picked fromthe conveyor belt at what time). The camera 52 can be in additionprovided with additional processing means 58 (e.g., computer orprocessor with memory) for performing a kind of pre-processing of theimages from the camera 52. This is useful for example at the beginningof the conveyor belt 70 on the left side since the calculation efforthere is rather high due to the highest density of small objects 72.

Exemplary second—not absolutely time critical—measurement data gatheredby the cameras 48, 50, 52 are transmitted via a data connection 74respectively via a sensor network 56 to the network bus 60. The sensornetwork 56 can include means (e.g., processor and/or firmware and/orsoftware module) for temporarily converting data, and feed themeasurement data in a suitable—e.g., digital—form into the network bus60. The definition of a time interval, which might be seen as notabsolutely time critical, depends on the frame conditions of the robotsystem 30. If for example the conveyor belt 70 moves at a speed of 0.1 mper second, a time span of 1 second among the analysis of two subsequentimages of the same camera 48, 50, 52 can be sufficient to select thesmall objects 72 to be gripped based thereon. On the other hand, such atime interval should not exceed a maximum value since the functionalityof such a system 30 is no longer ensured in this case.

On another hand, an exemplary maximum admissible time interval forsecond measurement values can be significantly lower than 1 second inthe case of a fast moving conveyor belt 70, for example 2 m/s. In thisexemplary case, the time interval should not exceed 50 ms at maximum toensure the functionality of the system 30.

First measurement data are gathered by the distributed sensor means 46and 54. The movement sensor 54 gathers the actual movement speed of theconveyor belt within a very small time interval such as 1-5 ms andprovides the relevant data via the sensor network 56 to the network bus60. The camera 46 gathers images from the end of the conveyor belt 70,where in the normal case each small object 72 should have been pickedaway. Another functionality of the camera 46 is to observe whether ahuman operator comes to close to the working range of the first robot32. The end of the conveyor belt 72 might be the only location withinthe robot system 30, which is not protected by a not shown security wallagainst entering personnel. Therefore an exemplary objective of thecamera 46 are security aspects, so that gathered and absolutely timecritical first measurement data are directly transmitted to dedicatedprocessing units 40, 64 where an emergency stop might be initiatedtherethrough.

The robot controllers 40, 42 can be provided with additional capabilityfor data processing. The analysis of the second measurement dataprovided on the network bus 60 can be preferred by those two robotcontrollers in cooperation with the further processing unitsrespectively (e.g., control PCs 64, 66). Which processing unit 40, 42,64, 66 respectively and which robot controller takes over which workingtask or working package depends, for example, on actual unusedcalculation capacities of each processing unit 40, 42, 64, 66, so thatthe available processing capability of the robot system 30 is used in anoptimized way.

The exemplary control PC 64 can be a master controller which coordinatesthe robots 32, 34, 36, 38, collects the result of the measurement dataanalysis and distributes the relevant commands or information to therelevant robot controllers 40, 42, 44. A system logical controller 68can be configured to communicate with an overlaid control system orother neighbouring robot systems.

It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that the presentinvention can be embodied in other specific forms without departing fromthe spirit or essential characteristics thereof. The presently disclosedembodiments are therefore considered in all respects to be illustrativeand not restricted. The scope of the invention is indicated by theappended claims rather than the foregoing description and all changesthat come within the meaning and range and equivalence thereof areintended to be embraced therein.

LIST OF REFERENCE SIGNS

-   10 example for a control structure for a known robot system-   12 known robot controller-   14 camera-   16 standard network bus for data transmission-   18 first system logical controller-   20 control PC-   22 data connection-   30 robot system with control structure-   32 first robot-   34 second robot-   36 third robot-   38 forth robot-   40 first robot controller-   42 second robot controller-   44 third robot controller-   46 first camera-   48 second camera-   50 third camera-   52 forth camera-   54 movement sensor-   56 sensor network-   58 processing means-   60 network bus for data transmission-   62 data connection to network bus-   64 first control PC-   66 second control PC-   68 second system logical controller-   70 conveyor belt for transportation of small objects-   72 small objects-   74 first data connection-   76 second data connection

1. Robot system comprising: at least two robots each having a relatedprocessing unit, the processing units being connected to each other viaa network bus for data transmission; and distributed sensor means forgathering first and/or second measurement data within a local extensionof the robot system, the first measurement data gathered by at least onefirst sensor means being transmissible to at least one of the processingunits related thereto, and second measurement data gathered by at leastone second sensor means being feedable into the network bus and providedto the at least two processing units connected thereto for analyzing thesecond measurement data as a variable dynamic share of processing unitworkload, the at least two processing units being configured to feedanalysis result-data into the network bus.
 2. Robot system according toclaim 1, comprising: at least one conveyor belt for transportation ofsmall objects, the at least two robots being configured for pick andplace applications of small objects.
 3. Robot system according to claim1, wherein the at least one distributed sensor means is a camera, alight sensor or a weight sensor.
 4. Robot system according to claim 1,wherein each processing unit related to the robot is a robot controllerwhich comprises: processing means for processing and analysingmeasurement data.
 5. Robot system according to claim 1, comprising: atleast one further processing unit, not related to a robot, and connectedto the network bus for data transmission and for analyzing the secondmeasurement data as a variable dynamic share of workload among theprocessing units, the processing units being configured for feedinganalysis result-data into the network bus.
 6. Robot system according toclaim 1, wherein the first measurement data of the at least one firstsensor means are transmissible via a separate data line and/or a sensornetwork to the network bus for data transmission to a processing unitrelated thereto.
 7. Robot system according to claim 1, wherein thesecond measurement data are provided with a timestamp.
 8. Robot systemaccording to claim 1, wherein the processing units are configured toadjust the variable dynamic share of workload for the analysis of secondmeasurement data among the processing units according to the actualun-used workload capacities of the processing units.
 9. Robot systemaccording to claim 8, wherein the processing units are configured toanalyze the second measurement data as a plurality of solitary andexactly defined working packages.
 10. Robot system according to claim 8,wherein the workload for the analysis of second measurement data amongthe processing units is adjustable according to a round robin method.11. Robot system according to claim 8, wherein the processing units areconfigured to request new second measurement data from the secondsensors means, if they have un-used workload capacities.
 12. Robotsystem according to claim 5, wherein the one further processing unit isconfigured with memory to store the analysis result-data of the secondmeasurement data for transmission to dedicated robot controllers via thenetwork bus.
 13. Robot system according to claim 5, configured fortransmitting the analysis result-data of the second measurement datadirectly to dedicated robot controllers via the network bus.
 14. Robotsystem according to claim 1, wherein the at least one distributed sensormeans comprises: processing means for analyzing the measurement data.15. Robot system according to claim 1, comprising: a system logicalcontroller.
 16. Robot system according to claim 4, comprising: at leasttwo robots related to a common robot controller.
 17. Method for analysisof the measurement data of distributed sensors in a robot system havingat least two robots, each with a related processing unit, the methodcomprising: gathering second measurement data by at least one secondsensor; feeding the second measurement data into a network bus for datatransmission; providing the second measurement data to at least twoprocessing units of the at least two robots connected to the network busfor data transmission; analyzing the second measurement data by the atleast two processing units as a variable dynamic share of workload amongthe processing units; and feeding analysis result-data of the processingunits into the network bus.
 18. Method according to claim 17,comprising: continuously repeating the gathering, feeding of the secondmeasurement data, providing, analyzing, and feeding of the analysisresult-date within a time interval.